Is this the post about the dolphin-sex in Saudi Arabia? Horny dolphins are mammals with a true bone in place of needing a Viagra Rx. But why would dolphins feel the need to need to boast in Saudi Arabia?

Perhaps one day folks will learn to simply enjoy creatures from a vantage point other than that crafted by some version of an amusement park, all the while thinking they are actually "communing with nature."

The worst movie ever made, The Day of the Dolphin, was about dolphins trained to carry bombs on their backs which would then attach to the presidential yacht and blow the Big Guy up. These were nice, lovable dolphins who could talk, by the way, though they certainly made a mistake by spending all their time talking to George C. Scott — that is, unless they wanted to order a highball or maybe a Sloe Gin Fizz. That movie came out in 1974 and no one who ever saw it is likely to have forgotten it in all its unimaginable awfulness...

My very favorite part of modern animal/human encounters that turn bad is when the human utters something along the lines of: "She said the dolphin had meant no harm." Right. The chimp that ate the woman's face meant no harm, the bear that ate the bear man and his girlfriend up in Alaska meant no harm, the cougar that killed and ate the runner in Colorado meant no harm. Right. No problem. Just try and be a little bit nicer to the animals and all this will change. Go ahead, swim with the dolphins. They love it.

Don't know why this has gives a bad impression of dolphins. The dolphin, apparently, likes the company and to play. It's not being mean, even nature mean. It's just being a dolphin who doesn't quite understand how a person could get tired in the water.

Of course animals have their own worlds and aren't cute/cuddly, always turning on and off for our amusement. Sometimes they get mean, and sometimes they can't empathize, and sometimes they get all crabby and lash out. That's not to say they're mean or stupid or especially not relatable to humans.

Because there are a whole lot of humans who are often nice, then lash out, or want to play when others want to stop, or assert themselves over others in their crowd. It's called socialized behavior. And it has wonderful sides and it has rather dangerous sides--for whatever species. The woman, certainly, got the better end of the deal than a lot of dolphins have had from our more "enlightened" species. Intelligent species have attitudes and they have distinct individuals with their own particular issues.

I am positive dolphins are not stupid. I am not even sure it is fair to call them "mean" in an anthropomorphic sense. I am sure dolphins in captivity or in situations without interaction of other dolphins are very high maintenance.

Of course dolphin lovers have a fit over these and proceed to give all the reasons why both articles are wrong, especially the latter, ignoring the fact that their example don't actually counter the science and the arguments being made.

(For example, everyone who has dealt with horses knows they are dumb as bricks, but you can still train them.)

I am not of that school of people who think dolphins are super intelligent beings, I suspect they are smart because they travel in packs and have to hunt cooperatively (similar to wolf packs). And probably about as intelligent as wolves (which are smarter than dogs). And whatever intelligence they have probably varies species to species (from what I have seen orcas and bottlenose dolphins are smarter than other whale, dolphin, and porpoise species).

Horses aren't dumb. Once you understand their instincts, behavior patterns, and sensory systems, they become quite understandable from their perspective. I was a horse whisperer in my preteen and teen years, training adopted wild mustangs with horselike social behavior and gentling methods. I was a horse whisperer before it was cool, and before I even knew it was called that.

Sorry kentuckyliz for maligning your state's favorite four legged animal. I defer to your horse whispering skills. Although it seems to me that great horse trainers just understand the way horses act and respond to things and modify their own behavior, training and expectations to match those of the animal. Horses are, like most herding prey animals, at their core just worried somone is going to eat them.